This review is being written from the perspective of someone who has studied economics for a lifetime and taught it to college students. I have come to realize that when an introduction to economics is presented as if it were designed to be the first course among many for economics majors, it is invariably deemed by most people to be quite boring.

The countdown to Christmas has begun and for many of us we will be looking to buy those special presents for those nearest and dearest to us. But with pressure on us all to get it done around our busy lives there’s a risk we might let our guard down. And when that happens we could find ourselves in the hands of fraudsters.

£56 billion. It’s an unimaginable amount of money. Yet this is the sum that the government says is currently needed to propel our transport system into the future - by building High Speed 2, a 250 mph railway linking some of the UK’s major cities - London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. It will cut journey times: London to Birmingham in under 50 minutes; London to Manchester in an hour and eight minutes.